Charles M. Gibson, M. D. During the past decade Dr. Charles M. Gibson has been engaged in the practice of medicine at Franklin, Kansas, and by his devotion to the duties of his profession, his close study and his pronounced skill, has won a liberal and representative practice. His talents and executive ability have gained him recognition in his community, and he has maintained throughout his career a high standard of professional ethics and honorable principles.
Dr. Charles M. Gibson was born at Richview, Illinois, July 6, 1879, a son of Samuel B. and Sarah C. (Hussey) Gibson, and a member of a Scotch-Irish family which came from Scotland to America in colonial days and settled in South Carolina. Samuel B. Gibson was born in Randolph County, Illinois, in 1846, and was there reared, educated and married. He followed farming and stock raising in the Prairie State until 1880, when he brought his family to Crawford County, Kansas, buying a farm and engaging in general farming and stock raising. Because of failing health he went to Texas in 1907, and there his death occurred, at Kingsville, in 1909. He was a republican in politics and a faithful member of the United Presbyterian Church, in which he was an elder and active worker. Mrs. Gibson, who survives him and lives at Pittsburg, Kansas, was born in 1852, at Jamestown, Ohio. To Mr. and Mrs. Gibson there were born twelve children, as follows: J. Albert; Minnie Belle, who is now the wife of R. J. Kirkwood and resides at Spearville, Kansas, where Mr. Kirkwood is a prominent farmer and stockman; Robert E., who resides at Pittsburg, Kansas, and is associated with his brother J. Albert in business; Dr. Charles M., of this review; Lyman C., who is a farmer and stockman of Pawnee County, Kansas, and resides at Larned; Samuel E., who is also engaged in farming and stock raising and resides at St. Paul, Neosho County, Kansas; Roy S., who is engaged in the furniture business at Girard, this state; Dr. Elzie H., who is engaged in the practice of dentistry at Altoona, Kansas; Ethel, who is the wife of Dr. W. A. Goolsby, a dental practitioner of Paris, Texas; Bertice, who has made a special study of music, which she teaches, lives with her mother at Pittsburg; Catherine also lives with her mother, and is a freshman at the Manual Training Normal School, Pittsburg; and Lawrence M., a graduate of the Manual Training Normal School, who is now engaged in teaching school and studying for the law.
J. Albert Gibson, of the above family, was born at Richview, Illinois, received a good educational training, and has for some years been prominent in business circles of Pittsburg, and in the political life of Crawford County. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1912 and re-elected in 1914, and in 1916 was a candidate for state senator, but met with defeat. During his two terms in the Legislature, he was one of the most active members of that body, being chairman of the committees on Banks and Banking, Cities of First Class, Employes’, Mines and Mining, Immigration and Judiciary Apportionment. Mr. Gibson introduced a bill pertaining to special improvement of cities of the first class, which subsequently became a law. This amended the existing statutes under which citizens had been paying 2½ per cent for the past ten years, an unjust commission or interest, on all special improvements. The amended law did away with this injustice, and of course has been a great saving to the tax-payers. Mr. Gibson, in all, introduced about nineteen bills looking toward the interests of his constituents. He is a republican in his political views and a consistent member of the United Presbyterian Church, in which he is an elder and trustee. Fraternally, he is affiliated with Pittsburg Lodge No. 187, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Pittsburg Chapter No. 58, Royal Arch Masons; Pittsburg Commandery No. 29, Knights Templars, Fort Scott Consistory No. 6, of the thirty-second degree, and Mirza Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Pittsburg; Pittsburg Lodge No. 412, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and United Commercial Travelers, No. 77. He also belongs to the Pittsburg Country Club and the Pittsburg Commercial Club. As a business man Mr. Gibson is interested with his brother. R. S. Gibson, in the Walker Gibson Coal Company, at Pittsburg and the Gibson & Hibbard Furniture Company, at Girard; and is president of the Pittsburg Fuel and Ice Company. He is married and has three children, namely: Helen Claire, who is attending Monmouth (Illinois) College, specializing in music; Eva Louise, a graduate of the State Manual Training Normal School, class of 1916, who is now teaching school while furthering her education; and Grant Burns, who is in the junior class of the Pittsburg High School.
Charles M. Gibson received his early education in the district schools of Crawford County, following which he attended high school at Cherokee, and was duly graduated therefrom in 1900. He next enrolled as a student at Kansas University, Lawrence, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Art in 1905, and two years later was granted his coveted degree of Doctor of Medicine. Immediately after receiving his diploma, Doctor Gibson began practice at Franklin, where he has since built up a large and representative professional business in general medicine and surgery. He has impressed himself upon the people of his part of Crawford County as a skilled practitioner and a man whose genuine sympathy does much to aid his professional talents. Holding to high ideals in his profession, he devotes himself to his conception of duty, and, keeping himself fully abreast of current events, both in his profession and outside matters, is able to enlarge his field of accomplishment and exert a further influence for moral uplift and the betterment of existing conditions. The doctor maintains well-appointed offices on Main Street. He has been successful in a material as well as a professional way, and is the owner of 160 acres of valuable farming land in the western part of the state. Doctor Gibson votes the republican ticket, but is not a politician. With his family, he attends the United Presbyterian Church. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, while his professional connections include membership in the Crawford County Medical Society, the Kansas State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Southeastern Kansas Medical Society.
In 1908, at Lawrence, Kansas, Doctor Gibson was married to Miss Edith L. Irwin, daughter of the Rev. W. H. and Elizabeth (Smith) Irwin. Reverend Irwin, who was a minister of the Baptist faith, is now deceased, but Mrs. Irwin still survives him and resides at Lawrence, Doctor and Mrs. Gibson are the parents of one daughter: Dorothy L., who was born at Franklin, Kansas, January 29, 1911.